Professor Brian Norton:

I will explain the context and will ask Dr. O'Connor to give more details. We offer an international foundation programme. People take a foundation programme to gain the qualification to join a regular level 7 or level 8 programme. Part of that may be a gap in their English language ability, which needs to go to a particular level to meet the necessary entrance requirements. To do that we need to draw on English language teaching provision which is IELTS accredited, so it actually meets the accreditation requirement for the relevant qualification they need to pass at the relevant level to gain entry. That provision goes through the whole year, including the summer. We do not have colleagues who deliver that type of provision. Indeed, our colleagues deserve their summer holidays. It goes through the entire year. We went out to tender, to procurement, and we have a supplier of that service. The nature of the foundation programme is about the gap in what students have and what they need to progress.

We get different intakes, and the nature of that will change. We do not know whether English language ability is going to be a feature in the future, so we could invest in a large amount of infrastructure and then find that the next year involves no requirement for it because the school systems in those countries have improved. It is contacted and it goes through the whole year.